About the Project
POWs – Behind Barbed Wire is a site developed and curated by Davye Cesbron, a PhD candidate in modern history specializing in war captivity.
This project is part of a doctoral research focused on prisoners of war who escaped from camps in Germany, England, and France during the First World War, with special attention to their journeys, conditions of captivity, and escape narratives.
The site offers a comparative and extended perspective, ranging from the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) to more recent conflicts such as the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Objectives of the Site
- 🔎 Provide an accessible database on prisoners of war and escapees, combining military, civil, and family sources.
- 🧩 Document practices of resistance, escape, and survival in different contexts of captivity.
- 👁️ Better understand everyday life in captivity: living conditions, relationships with guards, forms of organization and solidarity.
- 🕯️ Explore the memory dimensions of captivity: family transmission, institutional recognition, silence and oblivion.
- 🤝 Encourage dialogue between researchers, institutions, descendants of POWs and history enthusiasts.
- 🗂️ Highlight overlooked sources: censored letters, private archives, camp photographs, oral testimonies.
Related Projects
- 🏷️ Camp de Quedlinburg – Database and individual records of WWI prisoners.
- ✏️ Hypothèses Research Blog – Research articles, historiographical insights, and escape stories.
- 🌐 Personal website – Overview of research, publications, and talks.